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Anton Thumann
| death_date = | birth_place = Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm Bavaria, German Empire | death_place = Hamelin Prison, Germany | placeofburial = | allegiance = | branch = Schutzstaffel | serviceyears = 1933–1945 | rank = SS-Obersturmführer | servicenumber = NSDAP #1,726,633 SS #24,444 | unit = SS-Totenkopfverbände | commands = Schutzhaftlagerführer Gross-Rosen (1941–1943) Schutzhaftlagerführer Majdanek (1943–1944) Schutzhaftlagerführer Neuengamme (1944–1945) | battles = | awards = Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP | nickname = Hangman of Majdanek | website = }} Anton Thumann (31 October 1912 — 8 October 1946) was a Nazi German SS-Obersturmführer and a Schutzhaftlagerführer (English: Protective Custody Camp Leader) in various concentration camps during World War II. After the war, Thumann was arrested by British occupation forces and charged with crimes against humanity. At the Neuengamme Trial in 1946 he was found to be guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Hamelin Prison. Biography Early years Thumann was born in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, German Empire in 1912. In the 1930s he joined the Nazi party (member no. 1,726,633) and the SS (member no. 24,444). He then served as a guard at Dachau concentration camp from 1933 onward. Starting in 1937, Thumann was employed in the Office of Guard Command and ascended to the rank of Protective Custody Camp Leader ( ) in 1940. By early August 1940 he transferred to Gross-Rosen concentration camp, which at the time was still a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In early May 1941, Thumann became the Protective Custody Camp Leader of the now independent Gross-Rosen camp, under Commander Arthur Rödl.Ernst Klee (ed): Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945., Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 625 Majdanek From mid-February 1943 to March 1944 he began service as Protective Custody Camp Leader at the Majdanek concentration camp.Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder (eds): Der Ort des Terrors - Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, Volume 7, 2005, p. 44 Due to his sadistic tendencies and participation in selections, gassings and shootings, the prisoners called him the "Hangman of Majdanek". According to eyewitness Jerzy Kwiatkowski, who was interned at Majdanek from March 1943 to July 1944, Thumann personally executed prisoners and Soviet prisoners of war. He owned a German Shepherd that he used to bite the inmates.Jerzy Kwiatkowski published the autobiographical book 485 dni na Majdanku ("485 days in Majdanek") in 1966. Online at majdanek.com.pl (in Polish) retrieved 19 Aug 2011 (Note: this site incorrectly states Thumann's birthdate as 1913) For a few weeks between March and April 1944 Thumann was at Auschwitz-Birkenau.Anton Thumann at majdanek.com.pl (in Polish) 19 Aug 2011 Thumann also appears in a series of photographs from an SS recreation camp, the Solahütte near Auschwitz, discovered in 2007. In one of the photos Thumann is pictured with Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer and Rudolf Hoess.The photograph is from the so-called Höcker album at US Holocaust Memorial Museum Online at USHMM Neuengamme Thumann then served as Protective Custody Camp Leader at Neuengamme concentration camp from mid-April 1944 until the end of April 1945. Often accompanied by his dog, he was very feared in Neuengamme due to a reputation for abuse of prisoners at Gross-Rosen and Majdanek.Hermann Kaienburg (ed): Das Konzentrationslager Neuengamme 1938-1945., Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8012-3076-7 p. 296. As the British Army closed in on Neuengamme, the SS began an evacuation of the prisoners to prison ships. During the evacuation, 58 male and 13 female resistance fighters from nearby Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp were selected to be brought to Neuengamme to be executed on the orders of the Higher SS and Police Leader Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr. With the participation of Thumann, these prisoners were hanged between 21 and 23 April 1945 in a detention cell. After some of the doomed men continued to resist, Thumann threw a hand grenade through the cell window.Kaienburg 1997, pp. 259ff. Under the command of Thumann and Wilhelm Dreimann, the last 700 prisoners remaining at Neuengamme were forced to dispose of bodies and cover up the traces of the camp. On 30 April 1945 the prisoners were then sent on a death march with the aim of reaching the area of the Flensburg government.Kaienburg 1997, p. 278 Georg Gussregen was his unterstormfuehrer at Gross-Rosen.grossrosen concentration camp Trial and death At the end of the war Thumann was arrested by the British occupation forces. Thumann was put on trial before a British military tribunal in the "Neuengamme Trial" in Hamburg. Thumann and 13 other defendants, including Wilhelm Dreimann and the Commandant of Neuengamme Max Pauly, were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court handed down a guilty verdict on 18 March 1946 and sentenced 11 of the 14 defendants to death by hanging on 3 May 1946, including Thumann, Dreimann and Pauly. The death sentence was carried out by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint at Hamelin prison on 8 October 1946.Neuengamme Trial at The Jewish Virtual Library The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, retrieved 11-Aug-2011 Awards * NSDAP Golden Party Badge ( ) * Anschluss Medal ( ) on 13 March 1938 * Sudetenland Medal ( ) an on 1 October 1938 References Literature * Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 * Hermann Kaienburg: Das Konzentrationslager Neuengamme 1938-1945. Dietz, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8012-3076-7 * Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel, Angelika Königseder: Der Ort des Terrors - Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, Band 7, C.H.Beck, 2005, ISBN 3406529674 Category:1912 births Category:1946 deaths Category:Holocaust perpetrators Category:People from Pfaffenhofen (district) Category:SS officers Category:Dachau concentration camp personnel Category:Gross-Rosen concentration camp personnel Category:Majdanek concentration camp personnel Category:Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Category:Neuengamme concentration camp personnel Category:Nazis convicted of war crimes Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity Category:Executed Nazi concentration camp personnel Category:People from Bavaria executed by hanging Category:People executed by the British military by hanging Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Category:Nazis executed by Albert Pierrepoint